The Forgery of Venus - Michael Gruber

*** - I liked this a lot better than The Book of Air and Shadows. The characters still weren't exactly likeable, but I suppose I'm more willing to put up with ego-centricity in artists than IP lawyers? I liked the descriptions of the paintings and the painting process, but I didn't like the 'wrap-up'. Basically I need to stop being sucked in to Gruber's works by promising cover blurbs - his writing style just doesn't suit me at all.

Chaz Wilmot is an intentionally unsuccessful commercial artist. He has the astounding ability to copy styles of Old Masters almost flawlessly - but he can't seem to find his own style. He refuses to paint the kinds of works that will sell. Instead he barely ekes out a living painting for advertisements. His marriage is ruined, his relationship with his parents troubled at best, and his grasp on his sanity grows ever more tenuous as the story goes on.

So what's the hook? Wilmot is enlisted by some extremely shady people to forge a Velazquez Venus, and his participation in a drug trial is sending him into a sort of time-slip that allows him to inhabit the mind, world, and hands of Diego Velazquez. That's what I really wanted to hear about. But it takes far too long for my tastes to get to that point.

I was doing fine with this novel, more or less, up until about halfway through when our unreliable narrator begins being completely unable to determine which of his many nightmare lives is a hallucination and whether there's a giant conspiracy going on or just a whole lotta mental illness. I'm just not a big fan of open-ended, left-up-to-the-reader interpretations like that unless I'm completely drawn in and have a really strong sense of character. I just didn't get that here. So while I'm sure others found the loose style of the second half a great way to illustrate just how crazy our narrator is, I didn't like it. It felt like a cop-out to me because it just didn't answer the only question I was reading to find out - what's the deal with Velazquez...

I actually really liked the parts where he was painting. I enjoyed being immersed in the smells and textures of paint and brushstrokes. I liked the way he talked about the artistic relationship he had with his father - although I gotta say that all of the weird Freudian stuff Gruber likes to toss into the mix to ensure his families are REALLY dysfunctional annoys me. I did think he came off as a pretentious pseudo-snob when it came to art - his, masters, and modern, and just spouting off a bunch of obscenities about the degradation of modern art as reasons not to paint succesfully... *shrugs*. I don't have a lot of patience for rich boys intentionally starving themselves in garretts for the sake of a muse if they don't even paint the way they want to. And he just doesn't paint at all for the most part. Not out of love or for money. Painter's block? Daddy issues? Who knows, and after a while, I just didn't care any more.

So to sum up that incredibly rambling mix of reactions: Gruber's not my thing. His main characters annoy me. His plots don't live up to the promise of the back cover blurb - I often find them flat and unfulfilling. I need to stop being sucked in by intriguing premises and pretty covers.

But what could I do? I just visited the painting on the cover this summer and fell completely in love: The Rokeby Venus (the inspiration for the artist)
Las Meninas

Interested in other opinions?

The Printed Page

Philobiblos

Adventures in Reading

The Literate Housewife

1 More Chapter

Romeo and Juliet - The Shakespeare Theatre Company

The Shakespeare Theatre Company has taken a boldly unconventional - and at the same time deeply traditional approach in their latest staging of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The entire cast of the play centering around the tragedy that befalls two young lovers consists of men.

Of course, in Shakespeare's time, all of his plays were staged with all-male casts. Women were forbidden by law to tread the boards. So, in a way, this performance is going back to the roots of the drama - the language. After all, Shakespeare couldn't rely on the audience to simply buy pipsqueak boys in petticoats falling in love. So he had to convince the audience and the actors through the beauty of the language itself. And in Romeo and Juliet, we see a deep intertwining of the characters. They speak in sonnets - finishing each others verses and rhymes. Even the language shows that these two clearly belong together. With language that powerful, the gender of the actors shouldn't matter, should it?

Or rather, does it? For me, it worked. I loved it, and I'm not even a big fan of R&J. A great deal of the play was considerably funnier with men playing the women. Especially during the first act, the Nurse and Lady Capulet are definitely playing for laughs - even without being campy (which they weren't) there's a lot of humor to be had with gender-bending of that sort. And when the two young lovers dance and laugh and sigh, the rest really didn't matter.

James Davis, who played Juliet, never overdid it. He stamped his feet and twirled his hair and bounced up and down, and generally made it clearer than most productions that Juliet really is 14. She is headstrong and impetuous and completely, happily dazed-in-love. And so is Romeo. My favorite part of the show was when Romeo planted himself below the balcony and gazed up at his beloved with a soppy huge grin on his face that was just completely teenaged.

These lovers are very young and very naive, and their love places them in danger in a society so obsessed with masculine egos in violent overdrive to perpetuate a blood-feud the origins of which are long-forgotten. The message in this production goes much beyond the giddy headiness and overweening young love, it focuses instead on exposing the true tragedy behind Romeo and Juliet, war-mongering and unreasoning hatred and its effects on the young and brash.

For some interesting articles about Romeo and Juliet and all-male casting, check the theater's website:

http://www.shakespearetheatre.org/plays/articles.aspx?&id=671

Curtain Call - Elizabeth Bernard

*** - In the review for Changing Partners, I mentioned that I was sad Pam never seemed to catch a break. Now she gets a whole book devoted to her. Because unbeknownst to everyone, she suffers from a typical ballet problem. These really are like after-school specials... cloyingly moralistic 'girl books'.

Ever since Leah Stephenson auditioned for the San Francisco Ballet Academy, Pamela Hunter has seen her as an archrival. In fact, Pam tried to sabotage that audition for Leah - and their relationship has gone downhill from there. So now when Pamela starts making friendly overtures, Leah isn't sure whether she can trust the other girl. And now that Pam is being nice, who is responsible for the nasty tricks threatening Leah's career?

It's really not surprising that Pam is jealous of Leah - she's the darling of every teacher, every choreographer, the other students, and now even the press. But Leah just can't understand why everyone doesn't adore her. Leah comes across as more naive than usual in this episode, and it becomes obvious that these are intended for children - not for teenagers. Her approach to confrontation is straight out of a didactic tale.

I found myself disappointed with the wrap-up of this. I really enjoyed that the 'villainess' Pam was behaving decently for a change. And I couldn't help but hope that someone else was behind the tricks on Leah. The tricks, though, seemed pretty juvenile, and Leah falling apart over such things instead of focusing on her budding dance career just makes her look like a weak character. And the justification for the culprit's behavior is just pretty silly. Another typical 'ballet' problem checked off the list.

Here, I found myself significantly more interested in the set-up for the next story than in the plot of this one (after all - there are no mean people, just unhappy ones...).

Interested in the others?
Book 1: To Be a Dancer
Book 2: Center Stage
Book 3: Stars in Her Eyes
Book 4: Changing Partners
Book 5: Second Best
Book 7: Temptations
Book 8: Stepping Out
Book 9: Chance to Love
Book 10: Rising Star
Book 11: Starting Over
Book 12: Summer Dance

The Specialists: Model Spy - Shannon Greenland

****1/2 - I love spy stories, and teen spy stories tend to be even better - mostly because I'm a sucker for 'cool school' stories, and teen spies get to go to spy school. Here there's potential for a great Mission: Impossible type interaction and missions. And this had modeling! I can't wait to dig into the next one...

Sixteen-year-old computer genius Kelly is in a world of trouble when she's caught hacking into the U.S. government's computer system to help out a friend. Now Kelly faces two choices - she can either serve her sentence in juvenile detention, or she can join a secret elite team of teenaged spies known as the Specialists.

Of course she decides to give the Specialists a chance, receives the code name GiGi (short for Genius Girl), and gets to know the others in her new team. And soon, klutzy GiGi has to prepare for her first undercover assignment - as a model.

This was So Cool! Where to start? I guess with the characters: I really love them. All of them. Already. There's an easy sort of cameraderie that pervades the Specialists that I really enjoy. The others in the team, while they don't feature a lot in this book, are likeable and intriguing. I'm really excited about Bruiser's story (although I don't think it's out yet). The author uses dialogue well to give the reader a feel for her characters. They each have a different way of speaking and a different attitude. Everybody actually did feel distinct, and not in a separated through stereotypes way.

Kelly is believably absent-minded and awkward around others her age because of a lack of interaction. I loved her obsession with lollipops and her tendency to let her mouth run faster than her brain when she got nervous. Plus the fact that she thought in code when she was nervous was quite endearing. Personally some of her computer geekery went way, way over my head, but it was cool. And I enjoyed the tension involved in the huge crush.

I loved the way the training was depicted. Not a lot of time was spent on it (sad, but understandable), but it was enough to give the reader a real sense of the new supportive environment GiGi found herself in. And to make her blossoming into a talented spy believable. I thought her undercover mission was pretty cool, too, although I wish there had been a little bit more time with GiGi actually having to pass as a model - having to do a show or a shoot or something. It makes sense not to dwell on the side stories, it's an adventure series, after all, but I can wish for it, right?

So - do you like spy stories? Mission: Impossible? The Gallagher Girls by Ally Carter? If so, get thee to the bookstore. This book was amazing. I have the whole series at the top of my TBR pile now. And I'm so ready to get back to Specialist Training!

Interested in other opinions?
Presenting Lenore
Book Muncher

The Red Necklace - Sally Gardner

*** 1/2- This had a lot of stuff that I like. There were interesting psychic powers, Gypsies, the French Revolution. I feel like I should like this more than I did. Hmm, it's a good read. I didn't want to put it down, but still it didn't really take off for me. I guess I just felt like something was missing for me.

Our story starts out on the outskirts of Paris with a private magic show in the bleak winter of 1789. The mysterious Gypsy boy (and, obviously, our hero) Yann Margoza has been summoned along with his fellow magicians to perform their famed trick of making a wooden doll move and speak. But the performance goes terribly wrong when Yann forsees the bloodshed soon to come on the heels of the Revolution. Running to escape a bloodthirsty villain, Yann encounters the Marquis' shy young daughter Sido, and that brief meeting twines their futures together on a path fraught with danger and magic.

First off, let me get something off my chest. The cover. It bugs me. It's beautiful, no doubt, and it's definitely one of the reasons I picked up the book. But the heroine has dark hair... Would it have been too much to ask for this girl to be brunette?

Gardner definitely manages to bring to life the bubbling precursors to the Revolution, the fervid patriotism and the idealism of the early reformers, but she also doesn't leave out the ugly undercurrent of violence and death that lurked just below the surface waiting to burst free. She does an amazing job showing how much-needed reforms were twisted and corrupted into yet another tool for oppression, and how the resentment of the populace festered until it burst free in the bloody wave of the Terror. Her prose is evocative without resorting to the gruesome. As a period piece, this was a wonderful read.

Those of us who knew the events that would lead up to even more bloodshed can pick up clues that hint at the timing and the nearing calamity. And for those less familiar with the Revolution's timeline, Gardner included ominous passages foreshadowing the dire events to come. I read breathlessly on, wondering how Sido - a young aristocratic girl - would ever be saved given her foolish fop of a father, and hoping against hope that strong brave Yann could work miracles. The story drew me in and held me completely captivated.

I also really enjoyed Yann's ability with magic, and the descriptions of how he and Tetu could make their gifts work. It seemed a very plausible explanation of his psychic gifts. I didn't quite see why Yann didn't regain his lost gifts with time, however, or rather, why he only regained it partially. That aspect sort of itched along my reader's consciousness. I can only hope this will be fleshed out in the later books (which promise to be at least partially Scarlet Pimpernel-esque).

I was left unsatisfied by the 'mystery' aspect of the story. Count Kalliovski seemed almost a caricature of evil. He simply didn't scare me the way he should have. And several of the plot 'twists' involving him were awfully predictable. Of course, several of them were also left unresolved for the sake of future books - which might be a cause of my lingering discontent.

A good book? I think so, but it's missing something that would push it over to my keeper shelf. I would recommend giving it a read if the story intrigues you. And I'll definitely be taking a look at the sequel.

Interested in other opinions?
Casey at Read a Great Teen Book
Lenore at Presenting Lenore

Book Lust

Tuesday Thingers - Favorite Authors

Today's Question: Favorite Authors. Who do you have named in your LT account as favorite authors? Why did you choose them? How many people share your choices? Can you share a picture of one of them?

My favorite authors on LibraryThing are best broken down a bit: I'm warning you guys, this is long.

CLASSICS

Jane Austen - does this really need explanation? She's funny, witty, and I love a good love story. Favorite of the favorites: Pride & Prejudice.

William Shakespeare - writes my favorite sorts of plots, tons of mistaken identities, cross-dressing, boys dressed up as girls dressed up as boys... and the language is beautiful. I'm not trying to be pretentious, I just love reading Shakespeare. Preferably aloud. Favorite of the favorites: Much Ado About Nothing. Can't get into it? Try the Kenneth Branagh movie - amazing.

Oscar Wilde - so hilariously witty, scathing and silly, yet full of truth. Favorite of the favorites: The Importance of Being Earnest. Can't get into it? Try the Rupert Everett movie - hysterical.

Robert Louis Stevenson - I love these adventure stories. Some of my earliest favorites were Stevenson - including A Child's Garden of Verses. I used to spend hours playing Treasure Island, completely wonderful. Favorite of favorites: Treasure Island. Can't get into it? Try the Muppets' Treasure Island - Kermit and Tim Curry as Long John Silver! How much better can you get?

YOUNG ADULT

Gail Carson Levine - I really enjoy her fairy tale retellings. They're sweet, funny and believable. She creates strong heroines and I really enjoy the wordplay in Ella Enchanted. Favorite of favorites: Ella Enchanted. Completely different from the movie. Trust me.

Robin McKinley- More fairy tale retellings. I love fairy tale retellings. More strong girls and a rich fairy-tale atmosphere. Favorite of favorites: Beauty. A retelling of Beauty and the Beast - obviously. But completely amazing for somebody as bookish as me.

Louis A. Meyer - The Bloody Jack series. Do I need to say more? These are amazing. Jacky is clever and saucy with a heart of gold but somewhat suspect morals judged by society's standards. Especially the first few are full of nautical adventures and warfare - but not gruesome. Definitely more funny. Favorite of favorites: Bloody Jack - the first in the series is still the best.

Tamora Pierce - I love Tamora Pierce. All of Tamora Pierce. Although I must admit I'm partial to Tortall over Winding Circle. But I've loved her forever. Ever since I first picked up one of her books when I was 11. Love. So much love. Her books have become part of my identity. And she's always been responsive and encouraging when I've left her comments or written to her. I recently wrote a post in honor of the 25th anniversary of my favorite: here. That pretty much says it all. Favorite of favorites: Alanna-The First Adventure.

Ann Rinaldi - A great choice for historical fiction for young adults. Ann Rinaldi is probably the author to get me really into history. I love the way she deals with big episodes of American history through the eyes of real people - and they never felt sugarcoated to me or overzealously patriotic to me. Just interesting. So do yourself a favor and pick up some of her boks. Nothing cements learning history so much as having a good story to remember it with. Favorite of favorites: Time Enough for Drums.

Patricia Wrede - Patricia Wrede writes the way I want to write. Her characters are so much fun and so are her stories. I loved reading her fractured fairy tales in The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, and who couldn't love a woman who wrote a story called the Frying Pan of Doom? Her stories were the ones I showed my (hopeless) creative writing teacher when she asked us to bring in a writer whom we admired, the sort of voice (generally) we wanted to evoke. So, where I want to BE Tamora Pierce's characters, here I want to write like Patricia Wrede. I just love her phrasing. Favorite of favorites: Mairelon the Magician.

Jane Yolen - Here I don't really have anything specific to go on, to tell you. I just love her stories. Favorite of favorites: Dragon's Blood.

ROMANCES

Elizabeth Boyle - She came up in my Hoyden Awards, so it really shouldn't be a surprise that her books end up here as well. She writes fun romances that always cheer me up when I'm feeling down. I love the zany hijinks, the hilarious plot twists, the fun dialogue, and the lovely characters. I'm looking forward to Pippin and Dash's story so much, I can just barely wait... Favorite of favorites: Something About Emmaline.

Anne Gracie - Probably my all-time favorite romance author. The Virtue Sisters series was just amazing. And I'm a zealous missionary for all things The Perfect Rake. If anybody ever asks me why I read romance novels, or asks for a recommendation - that's it. The Perfect Rake is pretty much my idea of a perfect romance novel. It's emotional. It's funny. Gideon is charming, tender, and with just the right amount of mischief. Prudence is so strong and sweet and loving. It's just a match made in heaven and I laugh and get teary-eyed every single time I read it. Perfection. Favorite of favorites: Obviously The Perfect Rake, though I really liked The Perfect Waltz and An Honorable Thief too.

Meg Cabot - Meg Cabot is on my favorites list because I can trust her in so many genres. Mostly. I loved the first three Princess Diaries, though I felt they were getting weaker after that. I adored her recent Jinx, and loved her adult 'epistolary' romances. Favorite scene there is an IM conversation that sounds remarkably like a bad action movie: HAS DATE BEEN SECURED?! It had me in stitches. So much so that my boyfriend made me read it to him. He loved it too. So favorite of favorites: Boy Meets Girl.

Julia Quinn - Two words: Bridgerton Croquet. In case you haven't noticed, I lean towards romance novels that make me laugh AND make me fall in love. And Julia Quinn definitely succeeds on that score. If you haven't made the acquaintance of the Bridgerton clan, let me strongly suggest you make your way to the nearest bookstore. You won't regret it. Favorite of favorites: so far The Viscount Who Loved Me, but I hear once I get to Colin's story, I'll be completely blown away...

THE REST

Elizabeth Peters - I owe these to my brother. When we were poking around the library, he actually came to find me in the stacks to show me The Falcon in the Portal which had just come out because he thought the cover, etc. looked like something I would enjoy. I originally took it home without too high expectations - it was a find by my kid brother, right? But I was completely blown away, captivated by the irascible Emerson, indomitable Peabody, and handsome Ramses. Mysteries, ancient & Victorian Egypt, and a heroine who goes about poking people with a steel-reinforced parasol... why have you not run to the bookstore yet? Favorite of favorites: Crocodile on the Sandbank. I'm a sucker for beginnings.

Debra Doyle & James MacDonald - I love a good space opera. Not sci-fi, nothing too dystopian. I want high drama, blasters, fast ships, aliens, romance... I want Star Wars in book form - or at least something similar. And their MageWorld series completely delivers exactly what I want. On the button. So much adventure. So much awesome. Favorite of favorites: Price of the Stars. These are out of print, but so beyond worth the hassle of finding them.

Jasper Fforde - Book-jumping. Jurisfiction. LiteraTec. A world where people fight over who really authored Shakespeare and Richard III is done like a Rocky Horror production. It's zany. It's madcap. It's not quite coherent, but it's a giant mass of literary injokes. I love it. It makes me feel smart AND it makes me laugh hysterically. Favorite of favorites - The Eyre Affair. Although the scene where Miss Havisham sits down with the cast of Wuthering Heights for anger management counseling is completely priceless.

John Grisham - He has honorary status at this point. I loved his early works. Still do. A Time to Kill, The Pelican Brief, The Client. I devoured these under my desk in 7th/8th grade. I passed them around the classroom. I decided then and there I wanted to be a mixture of Atticus Finch and Darby Shaw with a little bit of Jake thrown in for good measure. But lately I haven't really liked much of what he's written. So I'm debating whether I should take him off favorite author status... but I just don't have the heart to do it yet. Favorite of favorites: A Time to Kill.

Pirattitude Giveaway!

Congratulations to Traci, the winner of the Talk Like a Pirate Day Giveaway!

Please contact me (email is on the profile) with your contact info.

Thanks to everybody who stopped by!

Talk Like a Pirate Day Giveaway!

Ahoy me hearties!

In honor of upcoming Talk Like a Pirate Day, I'll be dolin' out plunder - and valuable life lessons - my copy of Pirattitude!

To enter the contest (and to feed my nautical fervor), tell me what be your favorite book involving scurvy scalawags and gen'lemen (and ladies) of fortune! An extra entry if you explain how this is the flagship of piratical adventure and not a leaky jolly boat manned by a land-lubbing choirboy. And another entry if you blog about the contest and leave a comment with the direct link to yer post.

Now! Begin brawlin' among yerselves!

Entries accepted until midnight (EST) Sunday night. Winner will be announced on Monday.

Invitation Only - Kate Brian

** - Not quite as horrendous as the first novel. It seems Reed grows a miniscule (still flexible) backbone. Plus I like Josh. Other than that - still horrid manipulative mean girls, and the protagonist is no less one of them. She shows some semblance of a conscience, but not enough to have it actually impact her actions.

In this sequel to Private, Reed Brennan has finally realized her dream to become one of the elite Billings Girls. But all is not as rosy as she had hoped - her boyfriend is missing, the girls of Billings have her working like a drudge doing their chores, and her roommate is using some compromising pictures to blackmail Reed into betraying the most powerful girls on campus. Not an easy situation. Plus, Reed somehow has to finagle an invite to the most exclusive Halloween party ever.

So Reed... she shows a little bit of misbegotten backbone. She shows some ounce of loyalty to her 'friends', of course, she shows it to the friends that use her, manipulate her and treat her badly as a test rather than to the friends who like her for who she is and are genuinely nice to her. So I'm not sure backbone is that much of an improvement. She uses one guy in order to get closer to another with few second thoughts other than how unpleasant the new guy can be. Schoolwork has gone completely out the window... she's just a mess.

So what pulled this one up the half-star (though still not anywhere near a good rating)? This time there was actually a little showing of the charms of the Billings life. The Legacy party really does sound wild and amazing - even fun. There were at least two likeable characters this time (Josh and Constance), and there was a serious cliff-hanger ending.

Reed is still obnoxious, materialistic and self-absorbed. Her 'great tragedy' of possibly being sent home still seems less heinous than what she has done (and undoubtedly will continue to do) in order to be in with the in-crowd. So this really showcases how nasty teenaged girls can be - and how other teenaged girls will just lap it up...

Interested in the other books?

Book 1: Private

Book 2: Invitation Only

Book 3: Untouchable

Book 4: Confessions

Interested in other opinions?

Harmony Book Reviews

The Land of Silver Apples - Nancy Farmer

**** - I think I preferred this one to the former book - while there is still some dissension amongst the ranks of adventurers, there is definitely less Lucy. Given how little I liked Lucy, that's a good thing. There's a lot of interesting mythology built into this one, too.

After his adventures in The Sea of Trolls, Jack has been settling in to his considerably more boring life back at home. But this lack of adventure won't last for long. When the need-fire ceremony goes terribly wrong, and Lucy is once again in danger, Jack and young slave girl Pega set off through the Hollowlands to Elfland in order to save her. On the way, Jack must survive encounters with knuckers, Picts, heartless elves, yarthkins, hobgoblins and kelpies.

Like in the first novel, The Land of the Silver Apples contains a whole bestiary of mythology, and it is introduced in the best way possible with adventures and memorable encounters. I loved the introduction of Arthurian themes with Nimue and the story of Lancelot (I'm a sucker for anything Arthurian). And Jack's struggle with conflicting ideologies (the Bard's pagan wisdom, the Northmen's bloody fatalism, and Father Aiden's gentle Christianity) proves truly interesting without ever turning preachy one way or another.

It was good to meet Thorgil again, and even better to have Lucy off the reader's hands for most of the novel. Hang in there through the beginning where she is (I hadn't thought it possible, but there it is) even more nasty and self-centered than she was before. There is, however, an explanation for her behavior lurking in this book that certainly made me feel better. In addition to old favorites (Thorgil, Dragontongue) there is a host of new characters to enjoy (Pega, the Nemesis) and some to be both amused and annoyed by (Brutus, Ethne).

The high points are many: the adventure, Pega's practicality, not everything can be solved by magic, and Jack is NOT the best at everything he sets out to be. And although there isn't quite as much adventure as I remember in the first book, there is still plenty to go around. I just wish the final storm of Din Guardi had been a little more climactic.

Pirattitude! - John 'Ol' Chumbucket' Baur and Mark 'Cap'n Slappy' Summers

This book be a hilarious (how could we expect otherwise once we saw there was a foreword by Dave Berry?) guide to the practical piratical lifestyle by the hearties responsible for International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Inside ye will find piratical wedding vows, pirate zodiac and pirate personality tests, advice columns and (me favorite) the notes from a piratical therapy session. There be snippets in the margins defining useful piratical vocabulary and briefly describing the lives of the most notorious pirates. All in a funny fashion, of course.

This was the perfect read for Talk Like a Pirate Day! I loved the Do's and Don't's of pirate fashion, the constant references to saucy wenches, hearties and fancy lads. It was just a fun book in the irreverent fun-loving spirit that makes Talk Like a Pirate Day both so popular and so entertaining.

SO much fun (though I do wish there actually were pirate paper doll cutouts...). Now avast gawkin and get back to swabbin' the decks, ye lazy landlubbers!!

I Am Rembrandt's Daughter - Lynn Cullen

**** - I've been in the mood for some good art-related books recently (as I'm sure those who read fairly regularly have noticed). This is the first of those that I've felt actually delivered. I Am Rembrandt's Daughter is part coming-of-age, part love story, and thankfully part art. It actually made me more interested in Rembrandt, which is saying something as I tend to be less drawn to the Northern Renaissance artists.

One might think a girl fortunate to have a famous artist as a father, but Cornelia van Rijn knows differently. Gone are the days of Rembrandt's wealth and popularity. Nowadays he refuses to adapt his painting style to one that will sell, society still buzzes about his refusal to marry Cornelia's mother, and there are even rumors that he is losing his mind. But Cornelia could accept all of that if only she and her father got along as well as he and her older brother Titus. For Cornelia wants nothing more than to be accepted into Rembrandt's world, to paint and be painted.

Cornelia's story unfolds slowly - as her brother leaves the house to get married, Cornelia is left alone with a father who doesn't seem to notice that she's there. She grows increasingly frustrated with his tempestuous outbursts and his refusal to allow her to see the handsome student of a rival painter. I loved how Cornelia's past unfolded in a series of flashbacks linked to several of Rembrandt's famous paintings. These served to whet the reader's interest as well as to ground the story firmly in the realm of art that is so important to the characters.

The most touching scenes revolve around art - Rembrandt painting Titus' eyes on the baby, Cornelia's visceral reaction to seeing her mother in a painting, Cornelia finally modelling for her father. And that's exactly as it should be in a novel about artists; painting holds the key to Cornelia's difficult relationship with her father, Rembrandt's relationship with her mother, and ultimately Cornelia's choice of a suitor. Scenes with art are particularly difficult to pull off in prose, but Cullen succeeds brilliantly. I loved how she evoked all of the senses when describing these scenes - the smell of paint and linseed oil, the feel of the fabric as Cornelia models, the descriptions of shadows and birds on the canals. It's clear to the reader that Cornelia has the eye of an artist because it shines through the prose - not just because the author tells us so.

I loved Rembrandt's irascability - it is this wealth of emotion that draws me to the more Southern Renaissance painters, and it was nice to see a depiction of the Northern Renaissance that wasn't all suppressed/repressed feelings and stilted manners.

I didn't much like Cornelia's insistence on suffering in silence (well without saying anything to her father since she was certainly not silent to the reader). I found the mystery of the gentleman with the golden moustache quite predictable, but well-handled. I especially liked the direction the author took to resolve the issue. It was a good demonstration of Cornelia's growing maturity. The love triangle was a bit slow, a bit dull, and largely unnecessary to my way of thinking (and I LIKE romance angles in my historical fiction). Plus it had a bit of a squick factor - it might have been normal for the time period, but I had issues with her relationship with one of her suitors.

I really liked this novel. I liked the art, the period detail, and the depiction of family relationships. But I could have done without a fourteen-year-old in Luuuurve.

Forged in the Fire - Ann Turnbull

*** - A decent read, but it just didn't really do it for me. I think probably because the love story was built on one single meeting for about an hour. Plus parts of it seemed pretty preachy to me - though I'm particularly sensitive to that sort of thing.

Susanna and Will (from No Shame, No Fear) may finally have a chance to get married. Will has job prospects and is looking for lodgings in London. But when the plague traps him in the city, their plans are thrown into question. And as their love story grows more complicated, it gets closer and closer to the summer of 1666 - and the Great Fire of London.

There were a lot of great things about this book. The characterization - particularly of Susannah - is three-dimensional and not in the least bit stereotypical. She is strong in her faith, but preoccupied with sex (in a very realistic teenager way). She is headstrong, independent, but devoted to Will. I love that she decides to get work, that she has moments of doubt about her choice to come to London. She's just a really well-rounded character. Will is less distinct in my eyes, but he still has his complexities. He's faithful with the zeal of the converted, but he misses his old life of music, beauty, and wealth.

The details of daily life - the sights and smells were well-described, but at the same time I didn't get the same sense of time and place that comes in the best historical fiction. Although the Great Fire happened in the background, it didn't seem to be as important or devastating as I felt it must have been to those who lived through it.

Plus the love story seemed a little off to me. After all, they only met once for an hour before determining they were madly in love. The rest of their relationship was built up through letters - but that was in a previous novel, so I had none of that sharing of hearts and souls. So the fact that they were so dedicated to one another seemed very weird to me. I mean, I know plenty about long-distance relationships, both how difficult they are and how intimate letters can be, but only one meeting just didn't seem like it would be enough to decide to wed. And under the circumstances, I wanted their relationship to hit more bumps. Once they were actually together and living together, their relationship was portrayed as completely blissful - when really that kind of move should have pulled some of the romantic glaze from their situation. It's hard suddenly being tied so exclusively to someone and being with them all the time. That should have showed.

I didn't much care for the portions where the narrative dwelled on the persecution of the Quakers - not because I don't think it's an important story to address, but at times it seemed remarkably self-righteous to preach of tolerance while refusing to even refer to St. Paul's as a church ('steeple-house', really? Though to be fair the character herself addressed those issues). I had issues with the language; the 'thees' and 'thous' just didn't seem quite right to me. The verbs weren't changed in the way I expected (thou WILT, people), and that's just one of my pet peeves.

So - I think this is a very nice story for young adults, but it just didn't gel with my worldview.

The Treasure of Savage Island - Lenore Hart

*** 1/2 - a good historical novel, but with significantly less emphasis on pirates than the cover and title would have you believe. There seems to be a trend lately of me getting something entirely different than I expected... Still it wasn't an unpleasant surprise.

Rafe Pennington has grown up in the shadow of his young white master - a master who is also his half-brother. But when clever Rafe is discovered secretly learning his brother's lessons, he faces cruel punishment. So Rafe stows away aboard a ship bound for Boston. When a howling nor-easter smashes the ship near Savage Island, Rafe is found by 15-year-old Molly Savage.

Molly has every incentive to betray Rafe. Her father's gambling habit means they are reduced to servitude in their own home, and the cruel widow Pruitt has her sights set on Molly's father as a new husband. The money from Rafe's sale would ease all of Molly's worries. On top of these problems, picaroon pirates land on the island intent on plunder - and the search for a treasure rumored to be stashed somewhere in Molly's home.

Contrary to my expectations based on the title and the cover, this novel wasn't really an adventure story. There was no map and very little puzzling out where a treasure might be hidden. The pirates didn't even make an appearance until near the end. Instead the story was about the relationship between Rafe and Molly - the fragile trust that grows between them, and the ambivalence their friendship causes. It's never once taken for granted that either Rafe or Molly will do the right thing. They each have compelling reasons not to help the other, but each risks a considerable amount despite their upbringing.

The setting on an isolated island without any slave-holders certainly aids the believability of the tale. Not having spent much time around slaves, or around blacks in general, Molly manages to remain relatively (though not anachronistically) free of prejudices, although her conscience still struggles with the need to steal and even break the law to help her new-found friend.

The development of both characters is well-done. It's not rubbed in anyone's face, but Molly has undeniably grown through her adventures. She begins to see her father and even the widow in a less child-like black and white. Despite their flaws, she feels compassion for and even begins to understand them by the end of the book - at least she makes an attempt. The coming-of-age is unobtrusive, and it just feels right.

An interesting look at growing trust in relationships and overcoming prejudice (although that was a tad heavy-handed towards the end), a bit of an adventure story, and a fine coming of age tale. Overall a good read.

Primavera - Mary Jane Beaufrand

**** - This is a wonderful historical novel set in Renaissance Florence. I knew very little about the Pazzi Rebellion, but this told the story in a compelling, believable fashion. This doesn't pull any punches just because it's marketed for young adults, which is how I like my historicals. And I love books that tie into artists. Definitely recommended.

Lorenza, called Flora, is the youngest of the powerful Pazzi family. Ignored by a spiteful mother, Flora spends most of her time tending the garden and working with her grandmother in the kitchens. This is how Flora ends up meeting both soon-to-be-famous artist Sandro Botticelli and the young messenger Emilio who becomes her playmate and protector. For times are dangerous for rivals of the Medici - and none are greater rivals than the Pazzi.

(Side Note: Pazzi translated from Italian means 'the crazy ones' - a note to a foolhardy ancestor in the Crusades, but not inapplicable here either...)

Primavera is an intriguing look into the life of an aristocratic family with a tenuous hold on their power. Alliances and betrayals abound. Flora's unique position within the household as an aristocratic daughter, but the one nobody pays attention to, grants her a broader perspective. She sees the machinations of the aristocracy, the importance of accounting and banking, but also the poor who come to the door for doctoring, the guards. But despite having greater exposure to poverty than a typical aristocratic young lady, Flora is still realistically sheltered.

Sheltered that is until the Pazzi Rebellion shatters her world in a few short minutes and plunges her into adventure. This book has a smidgen of everything necessary to make a great story. There is fascinating historical detail, adventure, tragedy, art and even a smidgen of romance. I would caution, however, that I wouldn't recommend this for younger children (despite the cover that appears to market to them). The descriptions of torture and violence in Renaissance society are quite graphic - though the author never dwells on them gruesomely.

I had a few accuracy snags (cyanide smells of almonds, not arsenic; it's spelled Siena not Sienna), but despite these minor difficulties, I highly recommend this novel.

To see the paintings mentioned -

The title painting:
http://www.abcgallery.com/B/botticelli/botticelli55.html

The Madonna of the Eucharist:
http://www.abcgallery.com/B/botticelli/botticelli8.html

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing - M.T. Anderson

*** - I think this is another shining example of why 'prize books' are just not for me. I was doing fine with it until about half-way through when the style just stopped working for me. I thought the historical aspects were really interesting, but the conceit of the epistolary novel didn't really work for me.

Octavian has had a very strange childhood. Brought up amidst a house of men known only by numbers, not names, Octavian has been given the best of classical educations and basks in the wit and erudition of his mother's salon. But he also has all of his body's intake and output measured and never leaves the house. Octavian is the subject of an experiment. But Octavian is also a slave, and when management of the college changes, the parameters of the experiment change as well. And now it seems Octavian is being set up to fail.

The story of Octavian's life is very interesting - it details his treatment during the experiment, his rude awakening to his true condition, and his exposure and eventual involvement in the struggles of the American Revolution. And underlying it all is a seething anger at the hypocrisy of those struggling against the tyranny of England - proclaiming their lives as no better than that of slaves, but refusing to even consider the liberation of the actual slaves. Even those who labor or fight for the revolution. Indeed, the revolution in general is seen with mixed admiration and disillusionment. Anderson idolizes neither the cause, nor the brutal actions carried out by those opposed to British rule and those in favor of slavery.

The writing is challenging as well. It certainly isn't written "down" to a teen audience (thank goodness) - instead the story is written in an 18th-century style complete with the odd capitalizations so common to that era (which I'm inordinately fond of). The vocabulary definitely emphasizes Octavian's impressive education and prodigious intellect.

But my main trouble with the book had to do with the epistolary conceit. The first portion of the book is told almost entirely from Octavian's point of view in the form of his manuscript - assumedly from his trial for treason. But the telling shifts to letters from several different people, notably Patriot Evidence Goring. While I understand the power behind the ink-blots that demonstrate so visually and viscerally Octavian's failure to describe the horrific event that devastated his life, there didn't seem to be an actual reason why he could not describe the later events narrated by Goring. And since similar letters weren't more noticeably integrated in the earlier sections, I found the sudden shift in voice distinctly frustrating. It yanked me out of Octavian's story and for the rest of the novel I kept seeking the deep connection to Octavian I had felt before. I didn't find it. And ultimately that is what kept this book from being as powerful for me as it apparently has been for many others - including the prize committee.

The Hoyden's Awards

As promised on the Tuesday Thingers entry here, here's my shortlist of swashbuckling, silly, or general feel-good books with well-disguised Growth (if they bother with any). In no particular order:

The Princess Bride - William Goldman: Most of you have probably seen the movie, and therefore know all about the ROUSs (Rodents of Unusual Size), the Dread Pirate Roberts, and the general zany hijinks involved in this story. But rest assured there's a whole new level of zany involved in the novel. For the author (in his role as 'abridger') inserts vast quantities of funny bits in parentheses all about the invention of stew, jeans, and the political satire of Florin. It's stuffed with adventure and hilarity.

The Bloody Jack Adventures - L.A. Meyer: a series of young adult novels starting with Bloody Jack about a girl who decides to better her life on the streets by signing up to be a ship's boy on a Navy ship. She has a quirky, funny way of looking at things, particularly her Great Deception (disguising herself as a boy), and as is the nature of seafaring books, Jacky becomes involved in a ton of adventures. Great fun.

The Perfect Rake - Anne Gracie: Both touching and at times downright hysterical romance novel. Were he not fictional, I would definitely marry Gideon. There are mistaken identities, mock-earnest conversations about the danger to cats at various musical evenings (as it sounds like someone is stepping on their tails), and my favorite part - which is when Gideon decides to 'beat his eyes' for their impertinence in staring at the heroine by batting his eyelashes at her. Sooo funny. And sweet. What more could you ask for?

Something About Emmaline - Elizabeth Boyle: Another romance novel. Here the Earl of Sedgwick has made-up a fictional wife to keep marriage-minded mothers and their debutantes from dogging his every move. But craziness ensues when someone moves into his townhouse and starts running up the bills claiming to be his wife. It all wraps up in a vaguely Oscar Wilde sort of way, and personally...I love Oscar Wilde, so I was all for it.

The Secret History of the Pink Carnation - Lauren Willig: a combined chicklit/historical spy adventure story set in the world of the Scarlet Pimpernel. Amy is miffed that the boys won't let her take part in their spy rings against Revolutionary France, so she determines to start her own with sometimes disastrous results... Very screwball comedy.

Tamora Pierce and Alanna of Trebond

Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of Alanna: The First Adventure, so although I haven't got time for a review just yet (coming this weekend), I thought I should say a few words about this book, this series, and this author. Tamora Pierce's work, and particularly the Song of the Lioness series (Alanna; In the Hand of the Goddess; The Woman Who Rides Like a Man; Lioness Rampant) has been one of the most influential book series in my life.

I first got books in the series for Christmas right before I turned twelve years old. One of those adults who has no idea what to get for a kid (particularly a kid who always had her nose in a book) got me the first and the fourth in the series because the heroine's name was similar to mine - that's right, not because the plot sounded interesting or because she had heard good things about the books, but because of the character's name. And I have blessed my good fortune (and my mother's naming choice) ever since.

From the very beginning, I was hooked. Here was a scrappy 11 year-old-girl, smart and talented who was determined to become a knight even though girls weren't allowed to train. So she dresses up as a boy (I've always had a fondness for those sorts of stories) and proceeds to demonstrate to everyone that girls are just as smart and can be just as good as boys given enough grit and hard work. The book was a complete revelation.

Here was a world of chivalry and knights with a Code I could (and did) adapt to live by. A world with charming thieves, magic and swordplay. But at the same time a school story with bullies, classes, and chores. There was romance (in the later books), questing, villainous villains and good friends. I'm still a little bit in love with both George Cooper and Raoul of Goldenlake.

Alanna was short and I was a beanpole. She liked to fight and hunt; I stuck my nose in a book and couldn't build up even enough aggression to play soccer very well. But we both hated the cold more than just about anything. We certainly both had a temper. And we (almost) shared a name. In the eyes of an 11 year old, our lives were twined together by destiny. And I'm not sure I've given up that belief yet...

I was always a tomboy. Where I grew up, girls were expected to be tidy, sweet, with neat handwriting and no math or science skills. Athletic was barely acceptable. And girl books certainly reflected this. Where boy books were rough and tumble: westerns, adventure books, survival books, ships and caravans; girl books were (almost invariably) about boarding school with attendant cattiness, amateur theatricals, cheating on exams and sneaking into the buttery. And while I liked boarding school stories and was very fond of amateur theatricals, I wanted to be a boy. Because boys got to have adventures. Boys were allowed to climb trees, roam the forests with Native Americans, stowaway to faroff lands and invent things; boys were allowed to get muddy.

But with these books, I discovered that Alanna didn't have to choose. She could hold her own fighting with the boys, she could enjoy their company, but she could also like pretty soft dresses and enjoy girls' company as well as boys'. And even though I lived in a world where gender expectations were fairly rigid, I didn't have to be a boy. I was allowed to be a girl, sloppy handwriting and all! Because girls wanted adventures, too. And thanks to Tamora Pierce, Alanna and I were about to embark on one. And you know what? We're still questing together.

Awesome Giveaways and contests - getting ready for Halloween

Shana over at Literarily is giving away a copy of The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent - historical fiction about the Salem witch trials.
For another chance (with a later end date) visit Reader for Life's giveaway!

Bookish Ruth is giving out a free copy of Tess Gerritsen's The Keepsake - a new thriller about a serial killer "The Archaeology Killer" who is preserving his victims through a form of mummification. Sounds grisly, but an awesome

There's a great review of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict and an wonderful review with the author over on The Bookworm - I'm really excited about this one. It's about time I got hold of a good Jane Austen spinoff again!

Updates * Tuesday Thingers - Awards

I'm in the (time-consuming) process of copying my reviews over from my LibraryThing to this blog (so that they're all in one place and more easily searchable. Bear with me guys, and check back to look at any of the 'labels' you're interested in. There will be a lot more content coming over the next few weeks.

Now on to Tuesday Thingers: Awards. Do you follow any particular book awards? Do you ever choose books based on awards? What award-winning books do you have? (Off the top of your head only- no need to look this up- it would take all day!) What's your favorite award-winning book?

The short answer is that I don't read awards. If I see that something has won an award (and this goes particularly for young adult fiction), I'm more likely to put it back on the shelf as if it had scalded me. A quick explanation of why can be found at Debra Doyle and James MacDonald's homepage. In short, I do not like ostentatious Growth. I do not like people behaving despicably. I do not like people hammering their points home. I don't like the over-the-top misery that passes for literariness. Book awards tend to go to things that are 'literary'. Things that people feel cleverer about. Things that need vast quantities of discussion or whatever. I do not like these things.

Better put: “It is dangerous to condemn stories as junk which satisfy the deep hunger of millions of people. These books are not literary art, but a great deal of what is acclaimed as literary art in our time offers no comfort or fulfillment to anybody.”
Robertson Davies

I like "junk" zany hijinks, romance, implausibility, frothy fun. I like emotional but not tear-jerking. I don't want to be manipulated. If I ever found an award that I consistently did like, I would probably read it. But romances are too subjective for me to pay attention to awards much. Young adult novels that win awards tend to irritate me to no end. SciFi awards tend to reward the things I find most obnoxious in SciFi.

Perhaps I should come up with my own awards. The Hoyden's awards. Now open for nominations: anything frothy, swashbuckling, full of mistaken identities, high romance, and silliness. Emotions should run high. I want a book that makes you feel GOOD when you put it down. A book that makes you laugh and want to re-read. I don't much care when it was published for these inaugural awards. Toss out your ideas!

What's that book for you? (and check back later Friday for my nominations).

The Fire - Katherine Neville

*** - The sequel follows in the steps of the first book: Lots of puzzles, cryptograms, betrayals of trust and unlikely allies. There is a lovely thread of romance, and it was nice to revisit some of the characters from the first book. But here the adventure took a back seat to the puzzles, and the main character seemed lost at sea for much of the book tagging along rather than actively taking part which makes it less compelling for me.

I received a free review copy of The Fire through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.

The Fire is the (for many) long-awaited sequel to The Eight. Like its predecessor this novel really defies classification in any one genre. It's part historical novel, part thriller involving mystical artifacts, and part coming-of-age novel.

Twenty years after the end of The Eight, The Game has begun again despite all of Cat's attempts to stop it. And now it has focused on Cat's daughter Alexandra. Called home for her mother's birthday party only to find Cat missing, Alexandra must unravel a series of puzzles and decipher the messages Cat has left for her. Since a terrible incident in Russia years ago cut her budding chess career short, Alexandra hasn't touched a chess board. But the last game she played a decade earlier, and her opponent Vartan, may hold the key to her parent's disappearance.
The historical portion of the story takes place during the Romantic era in the Greek Wars of Independence. But The Game is complicated both in the present and in the historical storyline by the appearance of a second Black Queen.

The Fire actually addresses one of the biggest issues I had with The Eight - it actually reveals the purpose of The Game and its solution. But the route to getting there in this book raises new issues for me. Alexandra is a likeable character, and the reader struggles along with her to determine whom she can trust. But Alexandra has been kept in the dark about The Game, so although she masters puzzles almost in the blink of an eye - seeing not only the 'obvious' solution but several other possible meanings - she seems to be floundering as to what is going on for almost three-quarters of the book. And this, of course, means that I was confused as well - the dangers of a first-person narrative.

I really enjoyed watching Alexandra grow, watching her cope with loss and rediscover her love of chess. I liked her budding relationship with Vartan and the descriptions of her job in the Basque restaurant. The coming-of-age portion of the novel was both unexpected and quite lovely. It did, however, seem to replace most of the adventure that made the first novel so compelling. Most of Alexandra's travelling seemed to be of the tag along and wait to figure it out later variety.

There were also some holes for me in the historical plot. I was very drawn to the character of Haidee, so I would have liked to see more of her - not least because I feel that might have fleshed out some of the historical portions. The biggest issue for me was that I wasn't sure what happened to the piece that was taken when she was captured - or rather I don't understand how it ended up where it was...

On the whole, I thought this was a quick interesting read, and it brought some much-needed closure to the motivations and objectives of The Game. The historical tidbits and research trivia were always interesting and generally well-integrated, and I really liked the characters. But, for me at least, there was too much going on that left me feeling bewildered. Since that was how I felt at the end of The Eight as well, though, I would guess that if you liked that one, you may very well enjoy The Fire too.

Want another opinion? Try:
Kath at Books~Books~and Reviews
Lenore at Presenting Lenore

The Heir and the Spare - Maya Rodale

****1/2 - I loved this. It was funny and touching; there was champagne, dancing, and utterly unsuitable men. But there was also character growth, characters who seemed like real people with real hangups. *sighs happily* The only reason I didn't give this the full five stars was that the leads didn't seem to spend quite enough time together before up and getting hitched.

Beautiful American heiress Emilia Highhart would have no trouble taking the London ton by storm were it not for her infernal clumsiness. But because of her tendency to trip over anything (including her own feet), Emilia finds herself dreading her first ball in London rather than relishing it. Emilia's lack of grace soon proves a boon, however, when she is saved from falling by the extraordinarily handsome but entirely unsuitable Lord Phillip to whom she feels an instant and powerful attraction. There's just one problem, he's not Lord Phillip - rather he's Phillip's twin brother Devon. And the entire ton thinks he's dead. So how can he keep Emilia from falling for his brother?

From the title and the synopsis on the back of the book, I was hoping for something full of hijinks and screwball comedy. What I definitely wasn't expecting was an emotional story about sibling rivalry, jealousy, and slowly learning to trust. But that certainly didn't keep me from loving every page of this story. Truly this is one of the better debut novels I've read in quite some time. The characters' emotions run deep and ring true; the love scenes practically sizzle. And although Phillip came across as a bit of a caricature at times, near the end seeds of his probable redemption had been sown.

I adored just about everyone else in the novel, the untiring butler, shrewd and warm-hearted Lady Palmerston, Emilia, and, of course, Devon. Unlike most romance novels where the focus tends to be on the heroine and her response to the hero, the real center of this story is Devon - his pain at his father's rejection, his struggle for love and appreciation, and his ambivalent animosity towards his brother. He's a wonderful caring man, but he makes mistakes. Devon is far more than just a perfect fiction of a man - he lives and breathes. And he makes Emilia (and the reader) fall in love with him, flaws and all.

Wonderful, I'm already excited for the sequel.